yeah, female due tend to stripe up and loose color easily. I think thats why people say they are not as colorful - petshop conditions are pretty bad so they end up looking dull and striped. Put them in clean, warm water and they will color up nicely

I know the whole vertical stripes spiel my assumption was that her horizontal stripes were always just coloring as they haven't gone away and they're their nonstop, also they don't run the whole length of her body they sort of taper off at a halfway point. Also she always is energetic around feeding time (true betta down to the gut :P).